Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Students from the High School Horticulture Club hand-crafted vintage holiday decorations and visited the Welkinweir Estate to decorate the main room for the holidays. The club funds the project for Welkinweir and for the community who visit. Each year the club decides a theme. This year's Primitive Christmas theme helps to fill the estate with vintage charm. You may check out students' work at an open house this Saturday.

Holiday Open House

Saturday, December 10

10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Take
in Welkinweir's naturally beautiful holiday decor at our Holiday Open House!
Light refreshments and joyful music await. All are welcome. Questions:
610-469-4900 or welkinweir@greenvalleys.org

"Welkinweir is a 197-acre property featuring a 55-acre
arboretum and historic estate house, as well as ecologically diverse
wetland, meadow, and woodland habitats. The property is a living
laboratory for the study of ecological issues, sustainability, and land
stewardship, offering inspiration and education for visitors and
community members. Welkinweir is the home of Green Valleys Association,
a not-for-profit organization with a mission to protect and preserve
the water resources of Northern Chester County through advocacy and
education."

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

In honor of Computer Science Education Week, Dec 5 - 11,
2016, Mrs. Gloria Houseman gave Computer Science students at Owen J.
Roberts High School an opportunity to participate in a type of Post-It®
Pandemonium, an engaging “unplugged” activity that teaches computer science
principles without a computer. Post-It® Pandemonium was created by
Professor JL Popyack, Ph.D., Drexel University College of Computing and
Informatics. Dr. Popyack paid a visit to Owen J. Roberts High School on
December 6, engaging and encouraging students in recreating an image,
originally 3/8-inch by ½-inch, into an enlarged 6 by 8 foot image.

Students will work on the activity in the cafeteria working
on large tiles each day over the period of one week. Over the course of the
week, observers can watch the Post-It® “pixels” reveal a larger-than-life interactive
image. (In order not to spoil the
activity, the image may not be revealed until Friday, December 9.)

This activity focuses on how computers handle digital
images, a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. The activity
illustrates how images are displayed on a screen and how a digital image is
encoded to minimize memory requirements:

- Digital images are
formed from lots of different colored dots, known as pixels.

- The colors and placement
of these dots are encoded as a list of numbers.

- Images are recreated for
display by translating the list of numbers into the proper color and placement
of pixels.

Dr. Popyack has used this activity at national conferences
and computer science events to create banners and images up to 17-feet in
length. In order to save money, Mrs. Houseman’s students did not actually use
Post-It® notes, but rather blocks of construction paper and glue sticks to
place the “pixels” on the mural.

Friday, December 2, 2016

The wellness team at East Coventry Elementary, led by Mrs. Bailey, knew how much fun students had when dancing. The school has sponsored Kids Zumba and Line Dancing in the past. They also considered that in addition to the physical benefits of dancing, there can be social, emotional and even cognitive benefits. This year, using a grant from the Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation and support from East Coventry PTA, the staff brought Music Mondays to recess! With child-appropriate music, an adult to move with, and a great outdoor speaker, students could gather around and dance their way to a joyful break in the day. The project has been so popular, that Tunes Tuesday was recently added.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Free Family Event -Great for All Ages in partnership with the
OJR Education Foundation & Friends of the Arts -Tree Raffle of Decorated,
Artificial Trees Sponsored and Decorated by Community Groups and Local
Businesses.

Purchase a $20 Raffle ticket with 25 coupons to win a
tree/ornaments as well as many donated Gourmet Holiday Items, kids crafts and a
seat on Santa's lap. We have very nice crafts for children to make and take.
OJR High School Naturalists will be singing throughout the afternoon. OJR Elem
& High School School Art Clubs will be selling their handmade ornaments. If
you'd like to volunteer at this event,decorate, bake, help in general please follow
this link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/805094daeaa23a02-ojrfriends

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

District first grade students have been working on a reading
unit which taps into the power of play. Students are moving into reading texts
with increased complexity. To encourage early readers to tackle challenges,
they are invited to play “word detectives”. The reading unit supports
word-solving skills in a way that feels playful.

Students learn to locate difficult words and use what they
already know to solve those words. Then, the focus shifts to high-frequency
words. As their bank of frequency words grows, they can use those words to help
solve newly encountered words. Finally, readers look closely at words and apply
phonics knowledge to solve words. The unit will culminate with the opportunity
to use word-solving skills to solve a mystery in class.

Dr. Monaghan, K-12 Supervisor of Instruction and Language
Arts, recently visited first grade classes to rally readers to take on the
challenge of becoming word detectives to use everything they know to solve any
reading problems.